It was the Kalama for me...in the canyon..on a blue fox spinner...
my boyfreinds was my bday, a trip he got for me...on the Sol Duc...
i had a fish on and the fish that my boyfreind caught was soooo aggressive that it was hitting my bobber when i was fighting a fish...he threw a spinner in and it tagged it instantly...double on for my boyfreinds first...
im sure i got a pic somewhere, but it was before digital cameras were in my hands...ahahha...not that long ago...but my guess around five years...c

Puyallup River December 24th, 1980. 16 lb buck, took what seemed like forever to land. My knees were actually knocking when I landed it. I bonked it, put it in my backpack, and rode my bike home on South Hill. The tail was hanging out hitting the back of my head. Went back the next day after opening presents, caught a little 6 lb'er that literally landed itself on the beach in about 30 seconds flat. Had completely opposite fish, in two days. Funny thing was I had fished for 2 years trying to catch my first one. I couldn't figure out "the hit" on a corky. After that the hit seemed so obvious I couldn't understand how I didn't know before.

The Cedar around 1972 (before Boldt). There was a fellow in the office that used to come in Monday AM and tell us about his steelheading success over the weekend. He usually caught his limit on at least one day if not both. I had done mosty trout and salmon fishing but not for steelhead. Finally, I asked him about steelheading and being a very helpful sort he proceeded to show me how to rig up an oakie drifter (he gave me one to use as a prototype) and precisely where to go on the river. He drew a diagram showing where I should stand and where to cast. He told me to be fishing no later than 7:15AM (it was barely light) and if I hadn't had a strike within 30 minutes there wasn't a fish there that day. Although I didn't know it, my problem was that I only had my trout spinning rod to use. Well, I arrived at the spot right on time, found where to stand and could see well enough where to cast. I made a cast and felt the bumpy-bump-bump of the lead along the bottom. However, on the 3rd cast I felt a WHUMP-WHUMP-WHUMP. My poor trout rod doubled over and a fish leaped out of the water and over a sizable boulder. It broke me off of course but I was so suprised that my knees were shaking. Unfortunately I only had the one oakie drifter rig that my friend made up so I had to leave.

That week I went out and bought a Wright-McGill Power Light and a Penn 109. I landed my first steelhead the next weekend from that same spot.

JP

It was November 1992, just a few hundred yards downstream of the Rapid River. Same river, and same exact hole I took a friend to catch her one and only steelhead about 5 years later.

I drove to the river with high expectations. I even packed an oversized cooler into the trunk of one of the most uncool cars I've owned. A 1980 Datsun B 210, mine was faded tan and looked like the one in the pic below. Except for two important distinctions; There was a massive dent on the drivers side door, and on the passenger side door vomit had eaten away at the paint. I used a quarter to put some finishing touches on the etching that the puke had started. It looked just like the silhouette of Abraham Lincoln.




The cooler didn't fit, so the trunk lid had to be roped shut over it.

I picked up the fish right away on a gold pixee spoon, with the orange insert. Lost a second fish a few minutes later. And still when I tell people I caught that fish on the Little Salmon river in November, they say "But that river doesn't have any fish in it in the Fall."

I've been catching fish where there weren't supposed to be any for a time now. They taste sweeter.

And my B210? I had it for 2 more years. Summer of '94 I stuck a 100+ pound bluefin tuna in the bare trunk, and poured 75 pounds of ice over it. Drove from San Diego to San Berdoo with it leaking tuna juices on interstate 5. And on those rare occasions when it rained, my car smelled like cat food. I liked it.


VHAwk

North Fork Skykomish near Troublesome Creek - August 1986

1960 (or so) May Creek (trib of the Wallace) fishing with my Dad's fly rod and reel with a four(?) foot leader, colorado spinner and night crawler, held down with two split shot. Nasty buck about 7 or 8 pounds grabbed my shiat and ran downriver to the next hole. I couldn't put much pressure on the fish as I was only using 4 lb test. Old woman living on the creek comes out of her house (still remember her name...Mrs. Raddenbush) and yells to me, "Need some help?" I indicated, "Sure!", and off she trots out of sight behind her house and reemerges with a gaff hook on the end of a 10 or 12 foot pole, hikes up her dress, kicks off her shoes, and wades over next to me and says, "Just raise him up a bit". The buck was just sulking in the only deep spot, so I just gently pulled him up close to the surface, and Ol' Mrs. Raddenbush had that thing gaffed and drug up on the bar faster than I could blink. She just says, "There you go", and wades back across and out of sight.
Not a very glorious start, but my Dad sure was proud. Used to have some old 8mm movie footage of me holding that ugly thing up.

cool story dennis

give it another 5 years, and it might be another place to have a decent shot at getting one. there's a hatchery going in around 2009 or 2010 up in pioneer park.

i'm going to try fishing it a little more this year, got a lot of spare time on my hands during the week...there's still a few in there.

1st landed one was 1975 (I was 4) in late winter on the Upper Columbia plugging with my old man. I'd really like to know how many I caught that way. I really wasn't into fishing but I went everywhere with dad.

My first drift fishing one was at the base of Snoqualimie Falls (3rd cast) in 1983 (12 yo).

My son caught his 1st one last year (again pluggin') and he was 2 3/4 yo. Reeled it in all by himself (in the rod holder LOL), maybe a 6# hen. Proud moment for dad.

Pilchuck river, mid '80s. Had just moved to washington to go to school and hooked up with a guy I was working with to go fishing. I had a borrowed pair of waders, but no wading shoes (looked for days, but no size 16's to be found) so I put on a pair of old high top basketball shoes and off we went. It was cold as heck, snow on the ground and ice on the guides each cast. I learned the reason I was invited was because I had a car to leave in one place and then drive with my co worker and his brother in law to another spot up river to start fishing. As I followed them down the river I noticed each time we stopped to fish a hole they would trade as to who would go first, I was always left to bring up the rear but I didn't know any better. After about 3 hours of fishing and walking with no fish I was about ready to call it a day. They had spent about 30 minutes pounding this run while I fished the top end of the drift. They started down river to the next spot and I decided to get a couple of casts in where they had just been fishing. After a couple of cast I got the "hey there aren't any fish in that hole, lets go" from them. 2 cast later I am hooked into a 12lb chrome hen that is trying like crazy to make it to some brush at the bottom of the hole. I managed to land her, bonked her on the head and carry her for the next hour untill we made it to my car. They decided to keep fishing and hitch hike back to thier car, I was fine with the fish I had and nearly frozen so I called it a day. That is the only time I have ever fished the Pilchuck.

Snoqualmie (summer run), Other side of River facing the big eddy, down river from Tokul Creek ( Forest Theater side). The year was 1974. The Start of my Steelhead addiction. Been cronic since that bright sunny day.

Dec 1973 in downtown Redmond with a yarn fly, nice 12lb. buck. Nobody believes today that there was a good fish run in the Sammamish Slough during its heyday. Would love to see the old conga line of anglers right next to yuppie Town Center Mall today! There were many nates heading up Bear Cr. (before it got wasted) and before Herschel ate the rest of the run.
Wish that run was back and wish I could use floats and jigs there....

July 12th, 199?, Sky, with buddy in his driftboat, corky and sandshrimp... 27" chrome hen, maybe 4-5lbs? remember it because it was my birthday, and my buddy gutted out a toothache to row my ass down the river, on Sultan to Ben Howard drift.. Also no pic as his camera went tits up. This was after several other trips, (on the Sky and on the coast), in which I caught nothing. Years of fish whistling have made me forget which year, but I still remember buddy telling me I was grinning like a little kid.(Cotton mouth may have had something to do with it!) Before catching that fish the wife thought that when I went fishing, I wasn't fishing but having an affair, because I always came home smelling like sand shrimp, but no fish to show.
I asked her why anyone in their right mind would be having an affair with someone who smelled like that?!!!!

American River circa 1973. Casting white rooster tails with my mitchell 300 and Garcia rod. Dad was hanging by the gravel bar drinking beers with other "fisherman" while I battle the 3.5 lb monster. No picks.

~steelymann~

Bogey in the winter of 1996. We woke up early to temps in the teens and frozen pipes in the cabin. Harry and I spent the morning thawing pipes. Headed for the hatchery sometime in the early afternoon. We had the river to ourselves as the wind was blowing about 20- 25 upriver and it was downright brutal. We didn't put the heater in the boat even though we talked about it, we were tough and going to proove it. Nothing in the hatchery hole or tall timber so we decided to quit trying to proove anything and started pushing down river headed for home. Harry says "there's gotta be fish in the 'four o'clock drift'". (he called it that because he always came behind everyone else late in the afternoon and hooked fish there) Sure enough, he hooks one about 10 lbs we land it, bonk it, high five and he says "cast out there and get one for yourself." I do, and hook one identical to his. Both hatchery hens on pink pearl corkies. We didn't make another cast. That was as cold as I've ever been winter steelhead fishing. Harry isn't with us anymore but I haven't passed through that water without thinking of him since. That day is etched in my memory forever. He was a great fisherman and an even better man! Many of you crossed his path for sure, the guy in the brown Lavro, always with a smile and usually with a fish on.

My first steelhead was a 5lb native hen(maybe a unclipped hatchery) late Dec. 1999, when I was 10. Just above Maggie's Rock on the Nooksack. Caught it on a small corky and chunk of roe. One of the biggest thrills in my life.

1962--Humptulips with gramps. Hooked 3 caught my first Steelhead. Spin-n-glow and eggs.
Of course he hooked about 10 on straight yarn and eggs. Did not matter the water conditions, he never fished anything but yarn and eggs on 18" of leader and would outfish anybody on the river!

Upper green river near palmer at my Grandpa's house. 1967 I was 5 years old tossing a piece of nightcrawler off a rock in back of the house for trout. Allong comes a summer run to gobble it up. I remember screaming for help, Dad and grampa came running down and helped me get it in. I thought it was a big rainbow???

I grew up in Montana fishing for trout as a kid. Sometime back in the early '70s I went up to Ranger's Hole on the Duckabush with a little trout spinning rod and was tossing some single eggs in the hole below the falls, when I felt a tug on the line. When I set the hook, the biggest trout I had ever seen leaped out of the water took off downstream and immediately broke off my 4lb. test. Didn't have a clue there were steelhead around. I can still visualize that fish coming out of the water. Left me shaking and with the bug, though it was dormant for awhile.

Moved over to eastern Washington shortly after that and spent most of the next 10 years learning to fly fish and chasing non searun varieties of trout. Moved back to the wet side in 1986 with memories of that earlier steelhead. Started fishing with a friend for summerrun's on the N. Fork Stilly. Caught my first one on an orange marabou fly at Picnic Table on a beautiful June morning with the sun just starting to hit the snows on Whitehorse Mt. Memories you don't forget.

Cascade 1999 off of a white worm, same day caught silvers, chum's, and dollies it was a good day.